The best way to treat an eye injury is to prevent the injury from occurring. Contact lenses and glasses specifically designed for athletes are the best way to avoid sight-threatening injuries. The choice can vary depending on the athlete, age, position, and sport. We work with parents and the individual athlete to assess how to best correct vision and prevent injuries. For instance, for some young athletes, sports protective glasses with a wrap and large optic lens are great for soccer. They not only protect the eyes and provide good vision but also help decrease the impact and possible injury from a kick to the face or orbit.

All lenses used for athletics must pass strict standards for sports protective eyewear. This is indicated by ASTM F803 on the frame or lens. Athletes are risking serious injury when, or if, they play in their regular glasses during sports. We highly recommend against wearing these for any sport. The risks are too great and the sports vision alternatives too numerous to risk our athlete's eye health in this manner.

Proper fit of the temples and nose/bridge combined with anti-fog lenses and side ventilation are but a few of the features we recommend to allow the athlete to play safely. In order of frequency, the following sports have the most eye injuries as reported by eye doctors:

One of the newest and most sensitive tests in our evaluation of patients with glaucoma is Visual Evoked Potential test (VEP). This is a very advanced yet well established test. One of the newest methods of detecting optic nerve or potential neuron damage is using this test. The technology has been around for quite some time but the devices were cumbersome and complicated. Now, however, the current technology allows us to do a VEP in a predictable manner with an ease of testing and repoir that has never been available before. This is exciting because a VEP may be one of the first methods of detecting any potential disruption of the visual system that could be caused by glaucoma. A VEP measures how your eye and optic nerve respond to a pattern of lights on a screen. Our doctors can look at the amplitude (the intensity of response) and the latency (the length of time it takes to respond) and compare this to normals. Patients with early glaucoma have difficulties with low contrast targets and their processing of these targets may be slow. In this 20 second test, you look at a pattern on the screen. We place stickers on your head much like when you have an EKG for your heart and record responses from your eyes and brain. Losses in certain areas make us suspicious and cause us to pursue additional testing. We measure VEP responses over time and generally recommend one on an annual basis for our glaucoma suspects and early glaucoma patients.